Greatest Living Playwrite?

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Greatest Living Playwrite?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 9:08am

Anyone have an opinion on this? I'd say Tracy Letts or Douglas Carter Beane.

You're hurt and you're scared because you doubt your own artistic ability.

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 9:35am

Playwright.

Of the older generations, Tom Stoppard, Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, Christopher Durang, David Rabe, Harold Pinter...

Of the modern generation, Conor McPherson, Martin McDonagh, Douglas Carter Beane, Richard Greenberg, Tracy Letts...

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 10:06am

Albee for an American.

Pinter or Stoppard for the world or at least the English speaking world.

In order to be 'greatest' or even 'great', I think there needs to be a substantial body of work. 10-20 full length works at least.

"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable." --Carrie Fisher

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 10:19am

I think Stoppard is miles ahead of the rest. He can write very accessibly (The Real Thing, Rock N Roll) or in a flourish of complex words and ideas (The Invention of Love, Arcadia) that are best absorbed through multiple viewings. He has historical epics (The Coast of Utopia) and groundbreaking plays (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) as well as some of the best movie adaptations (Shakespeare in Love) done by a playwright. For breadth of work, variety, and quality, I don't think he has an equal.

If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them. - Ethel Merman

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 10:58am

Tom Stoppard
Harold Pinter
Edward Albee
Sam Shepard
Caryll Churchill
Athol Fugard
Michael Frayn
Brian Friel
Tony Kushner
Peter Schaffer
John Guare
David Mamet
Lanford Wilson
Horton Foote
David Hare
Christopher Durang
David Rabe
Neil Simon
Alan Ayckbourn
Craig Lucas

"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie [http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/] "The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 11:32am

What is sad is that so many of these authors works - if they were written today - would never make it to the Broadway stage. Broadway audiences tend to only come out to musicals or revivals , so I think its doubtful that a producer would risk producing a lot of these plays if they were written today by a new playwright.

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 12:38pm

Margo has the list I'd have compiled.
I think there are a few who, once they've produced more works, may make it someday.

Suzan Lori-Parks and Anna Deaveare Smith (if she writes anything else-Fires in the Mirror is one of the most moving pieces I've ever seen.)

"A birdcage I plan to hang. I'll get to that someday. A birdcage for a bird who flew away...Around the world." "Life is a cabaret old chum, only a cabaret old chum, and I love a cabaret!"-RIP Natasha Richardson-I was honored to have witnessed her performance as Sally Bowles.

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 12:42pm

my list would be

sarah ruehl
tina howe
horton foote
romulus linney
doug wright
david greenberg

Thats a short list i would put many more on as well :)

Upcoming Shows: Gypsy, Dead Mans Cell Phone, Xanadu, Sunday in the Park with George

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 12:44pm

Marc, I don't think that's true. I think the problem today is the same that it's always been. Truly great plays are few and far between. Producers frequently revive great plays from the playwrights on Margo's list because they are proven. Sitting through a mediocre musical at $110 feels less painful than sitting through a mediocre play at the same price. Even then, I'm more worried for the future of innovative and daring musicals.

Musicals are a bigger risk because it's almost impossible to capitalize a new production under $10 million, but plays can be capitalized for $1-$3 million. Additionally, plays have incredibly lower weekly running costs (fewer actors, no musicians, fewer stagehands, usually simpler sets, the list goes on and on) to make the economics workable.

The risk is scaleable to investors in that putting up 5% of a huge musical can be $500k or more whereas putting up $50-100k for a play with a greater take on the net with a faster rate of return seems like a better deal.

Doubt made it to Broadway as did The Pillowman. Believe me, if Glengarry Glen Ross were written today, it would still make it to Broadway just fine.

If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them. - Ethel Merman

Updated On: 12/6/07 at 12:44 PM

#10

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 1:03pm

david greenberg?

I also thought about Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Martin McDonagh, Conor McPherson, Tracy Letts, Richard Greenberg, Adam Rapp, Richard Nelson, Donald Margulies and a few others, but IMO they are, to date, each one or two great works short of deserving inclusion on the list.

"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie [http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/] "The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney

#11

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 1:42pm

I love Anna Deaveare Smith's work, though it was TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 the one that did it for me. I'm not entirely sure she fits the "greatest living playwright" title though.
I'm gonna add Ntzoke Shange to the list.

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

#12

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 1:54pm

Douglas Carter Beane? Really? I don't see it. Good,perhaps..but not among the greatest by a long shot.

II think Paula Vogel is on her way to "greatest" status. A couple more knock-out plays and her spot spot will be secure.

Craig Lucas does beautiful work too.

What great ones do the less will prattle of

Updated On: 12/6/07 at 01:54 PM

#13

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 2:15pm

FOR COLORED GIRLS is one of my favorite plays, but I don't see putting Shange on the list for really just writing that -- her only really notable play (plus a few minor works that are interesting, but not particularly noteworthy) . Everyone else on the list has an impressive body of work, some with a half dozen or more truly first rate pieces of writing -- Shange only has one.

And Beane I don't get at all. AS BEES IN HONEY DROWN, COUNTRY CLUB and LITTLE DOG LAUGHED are all funny and showcase his talent for one liners (sitcom-ish as it may be), but like Paul Rudnick, in terms of plot, character development, and sheer substance, he's a pretty second rate talent.

The only one from that school of campy gay quipmeisters that might merit inclusion is maybe Terrence McNally, who with LISBON TRAVIATA, MASTER CLASS, LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!, LIPS TOGETHER, TEETH APART, CORPUS CHRISTI et al, along with several notable musical books (RAGTIME, THE FULL MONTY) that have collectively won him 4 Tonys, arguably deserves a spot on the list.

"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie [http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/] "The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney

#14

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 2:30pm

no Israel Horovitz?

-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/

#15

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 2:36pm

Sara Ruhl

"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle

#16

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/6/07 at 2:38pm

I am kind of playing catch-up as far as seeing plays by some of the greats. I see my 1st Pinter play this Saturday afternoon. Seeing The Homecoming. I am quite excited. (A matinee. A Pinter play. I'll drink to that!)

Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder

Updated On: 12/6/07 at 02:38 PM

#17

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/7/07 at 1:13am

What about Neil LaBute?

Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.- Bette Davis

#18

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/7/07 at 9:54am

I think Harold Pinter is undoubtedly the greatest living playwright, because he helped to transform entirely an ancient perception of what it means to be on stage. His plays are earthy and elegant all at once.

That said, I think Suzan-Lori Parks is doing something similarly bold, and I might nominate her as Pinter's successor to the title.

#19

re: Greatest Living Playwright?

Posted: 12/7/07 at 12:29pm

This was so much easier to answer before Arthur Miller and August Wilson died.

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